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I've been without my computer for a few days because the usual snags
snuck into my seemingly annual upgrade; I just picked up the new box
tonight. Apologies for the slimmer pickings this week, but I can't
afford to invest all that much time from one night.
Thanks to those of you that sent feedback on my Brian Pillman
retrospective from last week.
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RAW this past Monday was a throwaway show. The entire show was built
around the Legion of Doom risking their careers in a match against the
Godwinns for the WWF Tag Titles. Neither team draws any heat, and
attempting to add some sort of special aura to a match of mostly bad
workers didn't work for me this time. The tag scene in the WWF is
exceptionally crappy; it's only a tiny bit better in WCW. Of course,
the LOD won the tag straps in a screwy decision that saw the Godwinns
apparently dump Uncle Cletus already after his interference cost them
the match. Very poor match; and there's the possibility that the
ruling will be overturned. To make the tag scene even worse, the Nasty
Boys are rumoured to be coming in shortly.
Steve Austin & Vince McMahon did their spiel, leading to Austin vs.
Owen Hart at Survivor Series, which looks to have the two best co-main
events of any PPV in recent years. Unfortunately, they are bound to
add a lot of dreck underneath.
Thanks to a thin roster, they did another prolonged microphone segment
at the beginning. I enjoy the segments more often than not when the
good verbalists are involved; but, on a night like this, with a crummy
main event and a couple of quick non-matches, it exposes the lack of
actual wrestling that takes place on the show. The minis provided the
only good work/workrate this night. Kane appeared again and left me
more embarrassed than last time. Is anybody over 10 actually looking
forward to watching him vs. Undertaker? Goldust reappeared, with
Marlena, with quick mention of the Pillman tragedy and a burying of
that story line. Yoshihiro Tajiri wrestled Brian Christopher in a
battle of second- or third-tier lightheavyweights. It wasn't a bad
match, but it was not what they need to deliver to get the division
over.
- All Japan has a major show at Budokan Hall on 10/21/97 with
Mitsuharu Misawa facing Kenta Kobashi for the Triple Crown.
- WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/26/97. Tentative line-up has:
* Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper in a cage
* Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage in a falls count anywhere
match
* Scott Hall vs. Lex Luger with Larry Zbyszko as referee
* Eddy Guerrero vs. Rey Misterio Jr. with the Cruiserweight Title
against Rey's mask
* Disco Inferno vs. Jacquelyn for the TV Title
* Ric Flair vs. Curt Hennig
* Ultimo Dragon vs. Yuji Nagata
No tag matches. It's still possible that a Giant vs. NWO member match
will be added, and there will be a Steve McMichael single match. There
is one potentially awesome match on the show and one that could be
good from the garbage wrestling perspective, judging from past
encounters. Still, every time I see them push Hogan vs. Piper as
something special, my stomach turns.
- It was reported in the Observer, as had been routinely speculated,
that the plan, before Brian Pillman's untimely death, was to have
Marlena turn on Goldust to stay with Pillman.
- Starting next week, I'll be able to see WCW Nitro on tape delay (on
TSN in Canada), so I'll add some quick comments on that show on a
regular basis. I did see the rebroadcast of Mike Tenay's lucha libre
segment; it was great. Eric Bischoff has big plans when it comes to
lucha libre, first running mask vs. mask and hair vs. mask feuds to
get other elements of the style over, and then promoting lucha-only
PPVs.
- - RAW 10/06 with a 3.91 rating against a 3.0 rating.
The detailed ratings are a click away.
- The PPV buy rates of the past six months (year or so) show that the
WWF has an average buy rate of 0.59 (0.52) and average gross of
$1.51-million ($1.32-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of
0.69 (0.67) and average gross of $2.12-million ($2.02-million).
The details as they stand are available. I will try to update the
figures by next week (sorry).
- New Japan has a major show at Fukuoka Dome on 11/02/97 with Shinjiro
Otani facing Chris Benoit for the J Crown. This is announced, but the
Observer suggested that it might be changed to Otani defending against
Ultimo Dragon.
- The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/09/97. Tentative line-up has:
* Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF Title
* Owen Hart vs. Steve Austin for the IC Title
- WCW has World War III on 11/23/97.
- The WWF has a PPV on 12/07/97.
- WCW has Starrcade on 12/28/97. Tentative line-up has:
* Sting vs. Hulk Hogan for the WCW Title
- Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If
you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request.
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Thanks to: Masaki Aso.
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